"Let him mature the strength of his imagination among the things of this earth," Joseph Conrad

06/01/2006

The New York Trilogy

It is fantastic how Paul Auster's book subverts and, as the dustjacket says, "transforms" the genre detective story. The way the stories run into each other and ask questions they don't full answer is enchanting, and escapes being frustrating.

The relationship and merging between the writer / private dick is interesting, and a great device. It is about how you can get lost in a "case" or a story, or a city.

I loved the bits about the Tower of Babel, an amazingly powerful story I had heard before but never really thought properly about. Using it with a story about a man who kept someone in the dark to grow up to try and create a "pure" unfallen language was a tour de force.

The final story with the Nietzschean figure Fanashawe, who has turned his back on what he once loved because he needs to live differently to other men, captured me the most. The family duty v personal dubious voyage of discovery theme I am strongly interested in. I also like portraits of ubermensch, and the catastrophes their decisions make.

It also really captures something of the city and you get a sense of walking around it with the careful use of street names. Something of the gritty glamour of New York. The noir glamour. It expertly balances story development with descriptive observation. It defies cliche and echoes something of Delillo's paranoia and conspiracy theory obsession. It is of that great tradition of readable literature.